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Back from Flaine
And a splendid couple of weeks it was. The only downside was the fact
that the 'Flaine micro-climate' seemed to have been switched off. Must be the Recession or something. It snowed moderately heavily as I first drove up the mountain road but not enough had settled on the road itself to require chains. Unfortunately, although this deposited 2-3 inches of powder on the slopes, I soon found that it was on top of lumpy hard snow (apparently there had been rain up to 2100m about 10 days before) so it wasn't particularly spectacular to ski or board on beside the pistes. That, plus a few mm deposited as showers of a fine snow 'drizzle' over the next couple of days, was pretty much all we got for the rest of the fortnight. The upside was clear, sunny days. Cold weather for the first week kept things reasonable and the last few days of the second week really warmed up, so the increasingly hard snow softened-up nicely but became heavy lower down. On the last couple of days, as I was playing in the Jam Park a lot, it became stifling waiting in the queue for the TK Aujon drag in heavy snowboarding kit. Nevil, the incumbent SCGB Rep, organized an off-piste morning on the first Thursday. I was definitely the least experienced of the group and had a shock on the first run: I'd been expecting a relatively gentle warm-up so the guide could assess our abilities; in fact his 'assessment run' took us down a couloir to the right of the DMC (looking up the valley). Not in itself a problem - I'd done it last year during the later stages of a Freshtracks course, but he then asked up to cross a snow ridge that led to a significantly steeper pitch - out of sheer nerves, I slipped and sat down, then, having completely lost confidence, side-slid rather than turned past some rocks then did my first turn and was OK after that, though it rather dented my confidence for the rest of the morning. The rest of the areas were within my capabilities, being again mostly places I'd already been last year. Apart from the confidence thing, all very pleasant and our guide even found us some real genuine powder! I didn't bother with 'serious' off-piste after that; I figured conditions weren't worth the expense. I did several of the blacks several times; the Lindars Nord chair was open this year so I got to try Agate for the first time. I also got to see into one of Flaine's infamous 'holes' from the chair; it wasn't fully covered by snow. Erk. Really, really to be avoided. The upper blacks were generally fine; Diamond Noir caused the usual butterflies but was actually fine with pleasant, grippy snow in the couloir itself for most of the fortnight. Aigle Noir was slightly crunchy on the top pitch and worse on the bottom pitch; the middle wasn't too bad. The long Onyx run was lovely much of the time; the lower gully was a bit hard. Fallen blocks of snow piled along a section of the drag were a reminder of avalanche dangers. The Gentianes run was... crunchy; I did it once but null points for style. I also tried Veroce, thinking it would be softer in the warm as it was low down. Boy was I wrong; it's not particularly steep or long but the moguls were very icy and unpleasant. Didn't bother again. Favourite was probably Combe de Veret; I even took the snowboard down it a couple of times, though on both occasions sat down a few times. Err, to admire the view, obviously. The final day opened warm and drizzly; the drive home was in a mixture of overcast, hazy sun and, approaching Calais, occasional torrential downpours. Thus ended this year's snow holiday. Roll on next year... .. -- -Pip |
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#2
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Back from Flaine
On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:17:18 +0000, Pip Luscher squeezed out the
following: And a splendid couple of weeks it was. Just the one week for us. Nothing difficult, just cruising the reds and blues round the area - and enjoying that deep royal blue sky you only seem to get on high snowy mountains. The final day opened warm and drizzly; the drive home was in a mixture of overcast, hazy sun and, approaching Calais, occasional torrential downpours. We did Samoens to the Calais Ibis on Saturday - we might have passed each other! Thus ended this year's snow holiday. Roll on next year... Indeed. Meanwhile, out with the leathers ... -- Colin Irvine |
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Back from Flaine
On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:31:00 +0000, Colin Irvine
wrote: On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:17:18 +0000, Pip Luscher squeezed out the following: And a splendid couple of weeks it was. Just the one week for us. Nothing difficult, just cruising the reds and blues round the area - and enjoying that deep royal blue sky you only seem to get on high snowy mountains. The final day opened warm and drizzly; the drive home was in a mixture of overcast, hazy sun and, approaching Calais, occasional torrential downpours. We did Samoens to the Calais Ibis on Saturday - we might have passed each other! Odds are that you overtook a blue Daihatsu 4x4 that was trundling sedately in lane 1. Might also have passed each other on-piste - I did ride & ski over to the Samoens sector a few times. -- -Pip |
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